My sexy new Sony Xperia Z1 White Review

Sony Xperia Z1 Phone Box Front

After a long awaited 2 weeks after pre-ordering, my sexy new Sony Xperia Z1 phone arrived! This following is my tiny tech review.

Pre-ordered for AUD $720 from Sony Center Brisbane, thanks to the price matchers in Melbourne. Normally they sell it for $779 pre-order.

Sony Xperia Z1 Phone Box Back

No unboxing video here, just the box it came in. Small square box sealed with shiny tape. As you can see from the back, the phone comes in 3 colors including the blue looking purple. Mine was the white one, which in reality is actually half black. In fact whichever color you choose, the front will be black.

Sony Xperia Z1 Phone Box Opened

My pre-order came with the usual charger and usb cable plus phone. A bonus speaker should be coming in the mail as well for the Pre-order promotion. No unboxing video here :D

Sony Xperia Z1 White Front

The phone does feel and look very very premium and the extra weight gives it a bit of heft. Definitely not a lady's phone, but also definitely NOT a brick. Compared to the Samsung Galaxy S2 and S3's I have used in the past, the phone is much bigger.

The 5 inch screen, covered with DragonTrail Glass and a screen protector, is the first smartphone screen that can be used in sunlight. Of note is the bit of backlight bleeding coming through the top edge of the screen but it is not really noticeable unless you display a pure black picture with the brightness cranked to maximum.

Seriously I don't know what the fuss is about the colors being faded when viewed at 45 degree angle. I could still see stuff on the screen quite well even at a 45 degree angle. AMOLED screens may be more colorful but when viewed normally, the display is fantastic, especially playing videos, just like a mini Bravia TV. My unit also did not have the yellow tint present on some other batches.

Sony Xperia Z1 White Back

The back with the 20 Megapixel camera is covered with a layer of Gorilla Glass 3. There is also a screen protector on the back as well. Camera pictures with the default camera app are ok in bright daylight but terrible indoors with a lot of noise.

I was almost thinking of returning the phone, but after installing the Samsung S4 Google Edition Camera app, the pictures turned out much better. Though the S4 app does not have a 20 megapixel mode, at least for indoor pictures, the noise is gone and at least its reassuring to know that the noisy pictures are a software problem, not a hardware problem. This major problem should be solved in the next software update (update 22/10/2013 : for the new firmware .237 the camera is slightly better in low light but still not as good as could be. Software still needs to be improved guys...)

Battery life on this phone is superb, in standby mode with stamina mode on and not using the phone, it only loses about 2% of charge overnight! yes 2%. I charged it to 100% before bed time and next day it was at 98%. Amazing!!

Sony Xperia Z1 Underwater

Of course, most impressive and another first for me was the ability to take the phone for a shower or swim. The Z1 passed my 1 minute soak test with flying colors! But underwater the only thing you can do is take pictures with the camera button. The touchscreen doesn't work at all. Also after a swim, you have to wipe the camera and let the surface dry before using it, otherwise the touch sensors just go 'crazy'

All in all, this is probably THE BEST smartphone on the market today. Ladies should probably consider the Galaxy S4 or the new LG G2. Guys, if you have the money, get one ASAP. Just do an immediate return if you get one of those dreadful yellow tinge(a few hard resets can solve the problem) or blue tinge screens. Also always remember to take your phone for a swim or shower once you buy it as a few units have been known to leak.

Tune in soon for my Xperia Z1 rooting and S4 Camera/Gallery installation guide.

Almost End of Term...

Well only 3 more days till the end of term for me. It will also be the end of my basic 2 years of training as a medical professional. Though I will still be doing medical work to feed the family, for me it is time to move on, on to things that are less brain intensive and more fun. In case you are wondering these are pictures from my food archive. Above is an omelet made with homegrown onions and below is a pot of soy bean soup with homegrown chinese chrysanthemum...


Indeed it has been fun to grow my own veggies at the current residence/house I am renting. We'll see how things go, hopefully I will be able to get a house of my own soon...

New Year's Day 1/365

Hi all, for the first time I am doing a new year's day post! :D

In sydney, new year's eve is always celebrated in a big way with fireworks (invented in china and probably made in china too) and for the first time, it was broadcasted in china on CCTV. Well I watched it on a big screen teevee down at the local club.

Good thing this year, new year's day is on a saturday, so I get monday off as well. So 2 more days of pure lazing around. My current downloads today are the new season 4 of Californication and Year End Hot 100 billboard hits, you can find them on http://www.freshwap.net/forums/ and on http://k2nblog.com/ both are websites I frequent for getting direct download links. My internet connection here at work doesn't allow torrent downloading. Gotta wait for next year after I move to better lodgings and get unlimited internet access before I can start crazy bittorrenting again.

In the meantime, I will just be watching my zucchini, spring onion and herb patches grow in the backyard garden. Enjoy the New Year everyone!!!

Coffs Harbour Holiday

Things have been quite hectic of late. When this happens my blog falls into ruins with neglect again... Well what can I do. The new place is quite nice, there is a garden where I can get organic veggies planted and a nice clean toilet with a leaky shower, at least the water pressure is more than adequate.

Last term at the far away hospital was really busy. Despite a lighter term, there was lots of overtime to do. So much so that I got pissed, took some days off and decided to accept a good friend's invitation to Coffs Harbour to stay. Yay. Did my fair share of fishing at the docks. This is a picture of me hiking down Mutton Bird Island, which is a small peninsula populated by mutton birds. These seafaring birds actually make nests buy digging underground.

 Needless to say Coffs Harbour was a load of fun! Still have some fish leftover in the freezer. I must say there is nothing like fresh fish caught by yourself.

Mosaic at The Westin

ent down to the MOSAIC restaurant at The Westin, downtown in Sydney today. Had a really good dinner there. I must say I wasn't disappointed at all!



We got there about 8pm on a friday night. The place was quite empty, only about 3-4 tables taken. Most probably all the Sydney urbanites were busy chugging down beer and wine at other "hotter" locations around town. Only a split second wait for our seats as we had booked before.



There were many many bottles of wine on one side of the wall as you walk into the main eating area. Wow, whole wall of wines, that's what happens when you plant too many grape vines and don't know what to do with all the extra grapes you get.


In particular, white grapes are made into this super expensive drink. This is supposed to be a famous champagne MOET and CHANDON, made in 2000(thankfully not made in china).


Why are they still keeping it on the shelf? I say drink it already! Maybe they are waiting for the queen to come by...


Well we were seated by a cute italian waitress who taught us some italian. and were given some time to think about what to order.


Good thing we had our uncle to act as the food guide and we quickly ordered three 2 course dinner sets.



They soon brought us some on the house bread. It was toasted and warm, with side dishes with butter and balsamic vinegar in olive oil. I think this way of eating bread is italian in origin.



For the first course we all had the same caeser salad. It was probably the best salad of any sort I had ever had. You know why? Look below! Two big fat super sweet and fresh Yamba prawns, strips of crispy oven baked bacon, couple anchovies, 3 year old cheese shavings and you get a very satisfied customer. Despite the anchovies and cheese being a little too salty, which I had to mix in some of the multigrain bread from before, I thought this salad was pretty yummy!



Next on my menu was Wagyu Sirloin Steak with beans. I ordered it medium-rare, and it came really medium rare. Very soft, very red, with blood dripping from inside. Could not see much marbling though once its cooked, probably when it was fresh and frozen the fat would have been white streaks. Hope I don't get any intestinal parasites from this....



Wife and uncle had a healthier selection. This was called the Seafood Trilogy. Consisted of once again the super delicious Yamba prawns this time done tempura style, some Kingfish and also some Jewfish(Mulloway).



As you can see the food not only looks good, it taste super good too! Total price for a 2 course dinner during this promotional period was AUD53. Remember to drop by the MOSAIC restaurant in Sydney at The Westin, 1 Martin Place if you come downunder...

Mount Coot-tah by night

After the Zoo trip and dinner, we decided to visit a look-out at Mount Coot-tah. Though it was pretty cold up there, it was still worth the short drive up. From here you get a really good night view of Brisbane city... Can you see the "Brisbane Wheel" on the right of the picture? Seems like everyone wants to copy the london wheel concept.


North south east west, which direction would you like to go?


An early day map of Brisbane city found atop a granite mounting. Shows how the Brisbane river run through the land mass into the sea.


As it was getting a bit cold after taking some night pictures, we decided to head back down to the city and have some hot drinks before heading home. Bye bye Mt. Coot-tha.


Housemate of my sis said he had been to a nice coffee place which was near to a french Eiffel tower. I was thinking why is there an Eiffel tower in Brisbane?? Last I knew this was a British commenwealth nation, the only french stuff being Vietnamese bakeries that made french bread and croissants. I looked up the GPS and picked a cofffee place in the city. Ended up driving to this place called DOLCE VITA CAFFE. YES!! It was actually a much smaller version of the Eiffel Tower in the middle of town. Can't scoff at local knowledge, just like fishing, local knowledge is best.


This place was packed and looked like a really promising 'hang-out' spot for night time hot drinks. Sis went bonkers and bought a freezing cold peach ice tea with ice cream float despite being pretty cold from the trip to Mt. Coot-tah.

Wife and I decided to share and try out an italian hot chocolate. This hot chocalate is made by churning hot chocolate in very warm container. It was really good, but it was so thick even the tea spoon for stirring was suspended on top of it!



This place was full of people waiting to watch the world cup on TV and had flags of the various football nations hung around. Found it really festive, but then again the management and staff were italian and they really love their coffee and soccer. We only hung there for a while and decided to go back for an early night in preparation for the long trip back to Sydney...

Crikey! Australia Zoo Part 3

Welcome back to the final part of my trip to the Steve Irwin Australia Zoo!!!

What can I say except that halfway through the day we got hungry and went down to the eating area place to get some food to eat. Food on sale here is not very fancy, just some normal cafe kind of food. Wife and me settled for this fish and chips meal which cost only 7.50. The other stuff was much more expensive as expected of a tourist place.


Our american friend had to have a good old american styled hamburger. According to him it was very yummy, even had some strips of bacon in it.


As usual my super health conscious sis who was freezing settled for a vegetarian burger. Which I suspect wasn't very good.


Back to the zoo animals. This was a cute wombat. They looked like they just woke up...


Then after they really woke up the zoo keepers took them fora walk around the zoo, I guess they are like dogs. Can be very stubborn too, sometimes they refuse to walk and the zoo keepers have to carry them back.


This was a huge emu. It looked at us and not very friendly.


There was this enclosure with many types of birds you go get up close too.


Look at this smiling koala. So cute! We were once again allowed only to rub its butt area...


There was also an animal show at the crocoseum. This was the second show where they had birds like the big macaws from south america and an andean condor! below is a kookaburra not sitting on an old gum tree but on the zoo keeper's hand.


A majestic australian wedge-tailed eagle. Birds like these can sometimes be seen on highway roads feeding on roadkill so when you see  road kill in the distance slow down as an eagle might sometimes be there feeding and not fly away in time to avoid your car.


For those who need a ride, there is a tram that brings you to various stations scattered around the zoo. We took it for only a couple stops though. At one of the stops we were so lucky to see them walking a cheetah. The zoo keepers really like walking their animals like pets. You can even pay extra to book a walk with a tiger!! First time I ever saw a real life cheetah! Sad thing is these beautiful endangered creatures may not be around in our world for long...


After a fun day at the zoo we drove back to Brisbane. Decided to have dinner back at a Chinese BBQ restaurant I went to before and raved about the char siew / BBQ pork rice. Sis ordered this wonton noodle soup. the noodles were not much good but the wontons were quite big and nice.


The rest of us ordered BBQ pork rice. Unfortunately seems the boss has hired some staff to do the chopping and serving. This time round the pork was not as nice though it was quite thinly sliced like they do in malaysia.. they also put very little rice on each plate this time.. Damn, can't really recommend this place anymore...


But what a good day at the zoo, even though dinner was sub-par we still felt quite happy!

Crikey! Australia Zoo Part 2

Some more animals in the Zoo as I continue the story of our day out in the Australia Zoo... This is a wild turkey, one of many that we saw walking around freely, digging away at the ground. Only later did we find out this bird digs the leaves into quite a high mound and uses that as a nesting site.


This exhibit was part of the building which had the food outlets upstairs and gift and photo shops downstairs. Was a little freaked by this HUGE but comfortably asleep python.


Nevermind they are non-venomous, they can eat you up...


The Echidna exhibit, a native of Australia, these cute pokey little creatures just waddle around looking for stuff like grubs to eat.


Really difficult to take a good shot with it moving around and with me being on top.


This Zoo has a petting section for kids. A few of the BIG kids that came along had fun petting the farm animals. The sheep were quite friendly.


So were the calves, busy eating their lunch..


This was probably the most 'up close' part of the Zoo. There is a big enclosure where you get to pet and hand feed the red-tailed kangaroos. Most were tame and would jump up to you even if you only reached out your hand pretending to want to feed them, but not as tame as the wallabies we encountered in a Sydney zoo, i was unable to feel any of their pouches, they would jump away if I tried to rub their tums.

Australia Zoo Part 1 Crikey!

Once again I am back posting on me blog.. yeah.. promise I will be posting lots of stuff that's due. First off will be my Crikey! series. Recently visited the Australia Zoo, previously operated and owned by the famous crocodile hunter Steve Irwin.Went with wife, sis, her housemate and an american friend. Tickets were half-priced due to the 40th anniversary celebrations.

This trip was after a 13 hour drive from Sydney up to Brisbane and a day's rest. Our american friend had a fever the day after the long drive and we had to postpone the trip a day for him to rest. Good thing too coz we were quite tired from the drive as well. Kept wondering how the place would be like before I got there.

We arrived early that morning. Opening time is 9am at the zoo. We lined up at the printed tickets counter and after a quick glance at the printed out tickets, we were let into the zoo. Apparently they dont care too much for tickets, once you get in you are in the zoo, until you let yourself out.

We were very lucky on this day, right at the entrance was a cuddly koala and zoo keeper taking it out for a walk around the zoo... Sis got to pat it and was so delighted!

Australia Zoo Koala

This place has very good signage. Though for some funny reason I always end up a bit lost in zoos. I think they don't draw the maps exactly as the zoo is laid out. Yes, the Crocoseum is the place to be if you wanna catch the daily shows.

Australia Zoo Signs

Met another group of sleepy koalas on the way to the crocoseum. This fella was catching on some much needed sleep. Koalas spend a lot of time sleeping, helps with digesting the leaves. In this zoo, we were at least allowed to touch the koalas, but limited to the white patch around the bum area, there is like a thickened and hard disc of skin under this area which koalas use for sitting on tree branches, so patting this area is cool and won't irritate or alarm them.

Sleeping Koala

Talk about digesting leaves. Apparently the baby koalas eat their mother's poop to get bacteria that helps digest the leaves into nutrients and more poop...

Koala Sign Board

This was highlight number 2 of the day. We wanted to go see them feed otters but somehow ended up at the Tasmanian devil exhibit where they were feeding the little devils eggs and baby chicks! eww... but they are carnivors after all....

Tasmanian Devil Info

Tasmanian Devil Info

The two Tasmanian devils ended up having a big fight over some of the food. The keepers had to give them more food to stop the fight!

Tasmanian Devil Australia Zoo

We then passed by the Cassowary enclosure and saw a couple of them. They look like huge prehistoric turkeys covered in what looked more like a rough fur coat rather than feathers... I think they were sleeping and only opened their eyes to wonder at all the funny humans taking pictures of them..

Cassowary at Australia Zoo

Our first taste of crocodiles at the Zoo. This Zoo used to be more of a bird and reptile park before they got more animals and made it into a zoo. These crocodiles were quite small, about the size of a tall guy, but i bet they still bite pretty hard... Already you can see where there are crocs, there's Steve Irwin!!!

Crocodile info